Christmas Too Soon? by Abigail LaLonde

It seems as though every year Christmas items start appearing stores earlier and earlier. Even Christmas music starts playing the day after Thanksgiving. Although I am a fan of Christmas and all it brings, are stores and radios starting too soon?

After talking to some students around Tech, I found out that some of them feel the same way. Swetha Shankar, a junior here at Tech, said the earliest she had seen something in stores was in September, which is not at all close to the Christmas season. She also stated that when she is shopping, all the Christmas items get in her way of finding the items she really needs, and with a majority of most stores covered in Christmas products, it is easy to see her reasoning.

To her, a good time to start selling Christmas items is the day after Thanksgiving. She said if you really want to go out and get your Christmas stuff, you should do it on Black Friday because it will all be on sale. Over the Christmas season, around 3 trillion dollars are spent on christmas clothes, gifts, food, and decorations. Starting the sales on Christmas products during Black Friday could bring that number up even more.

As for Christmas music, she believes that a good time to start the music is December 1 and stop on December 25, because twenty-five days of the same repetitive Christmas music is enough.

Even though some students feel that Christmas starts too soon, there are some students who wish that it came sooner. Madison Midas, a junior at Tech, believes that Christmas can’t come soon enough. The earliest she saw something Christmas related in the stores was in late October. Ideally she would like Christmas products to to start appearing in stores on November 1, and this could actually benefit the stores, because it would allow stores to sell more items, and in turn make more money. As for Christmas music, she believes this should start being played on the radios on November 1, and continue playing until January 20.

The Christmas season brings many people happiness and joy. Additionally, according to a study done in 1999 by neuroscientists Randy and Lori Sansone, Christmas music does bring people happiness, due to the memories that the songs bring.

Overall, having Christmas too soon could be an annoyance to some people, and bring extreme joy to others.